Fantasy
by AisonX
Summary: Alison Edgley had always thought that her sister was odd. Distanced, like she was hiding something. But that was before Alison herself had a head-on collision with the magical world and got dragged into this mess of spells, skeletons, and identical mirror images. Oh, the surprise.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay. If you've read the summary (and I hope you did), yeah. This is basically from Valkyrie's sister, Alison's eyes.**

**Kingdom of the Wicked never happened. ***** Sorry, because everything changes in that book.**

**Alison is 11. Valkyrie is 23. I know that's not their real age difference but I didn't want Valkyrie to be too old.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer : I do not own Skulduggery Pleasant. The series belongs to Derek Landy.**

**xxx**

Alison Edgley had always felt that something was missing in her sister, Stephanie.

She couldn't pinpoint exactly what. Maybe it was the times Alison would ask a question and her sister would seem detached and far, far away. Or the times when her sister would go to her room, covered in bruises, then go away and come back perfectly fine. Or the times when she would talk like she wasn't part of the family. There was just something weird, something odd.

Alison knew that not many twenty-three years olds owned huge mansions, inherited from their dead uncle Gordon. Alison had never met Gordon, but Stephanie had said that he was funny and one of a kind. But the weird thing, Stephanie talked as if Gordon was still alive. She talked about him in the present tense.

Alison didn't ask. She was curious, but learned never to ask about her sister's life. Her sister, she knew, did her own thing. There were people who presumed that Stephanie was secretly part of some gang, with her muscled arms, but Alison knew better. She knew that her sister wasn't part of some gang. She was part of something bigger.

Something that was not to be known to the humans.

She shook her head. She didn't know where that thought had come from. From reading too much fantasy books, maybe.

Alison loved books. Not the boring ones with bland letterings and no imagination, no. Alison like books about supernatural things. Fantasy worlds. Worlds of magic and sorcery. She wanted a world of excitement and mysteries.

Sometimes Alison thought the world Stephanie seemed to live in was like that. Stephanie didn't seem to be a part of her world. No, Stephanie was detached from her, but at the same time she was a bridge from Alison's bland world to the exiting one of magic.

Sometimes, Alison really doubted herself.

There was something seriously wrong with her. Alison was different. She couldn't explain it, but she thought Stephanie would understand. Alison believed in magic, the type most children would've grown out of by her age. Not her. A part of Alison had always believed in magic and she couldn't snap herself out of it.

Sh couldn't tell her dad. He had always been strongly against magic for some reason unknown to Alison. But It was just as well, though. Alison liked living in her fantasy world, even if it was just by herself.

The door suddenly creaked open, stopping Alison from thinking on. She glanced over at the doorway to find her mum grinning at her. She looked horizontal, and Alison sat up from her bed so that her mum went back to being vertical.

"Alison," Melissa Edgley said, smiling brightly. "Hello."

"Hi, mum." Alison replied. "What are you doing in my room?"

Alison's mum opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, a hand snaked around Alison's door, followed by a head. Her dad grinned as he poked his head into the room and looked at Alison. "There's a _surprise_ for your sister!" He exclaimed, interrupting his wife's attempt to say the words.

Alison's mum glared at her dad, then nodded. "Yeah. She got a pretty good mark on her exam so your dad and I baked her a cupcake. He was rubbish at it."

Desmond narrowed his eyes. "It's not my fault! The numbers on the recipe were too small. And I always thought 'two' looked sort of like 'five'." He explained, gesturing with his hands wildly.

Alison snorted and her dad glared at her. Melissa shook her head in amusement, her eyes twinkling, and sighed.

"I told you, he's hopeless." she said, but she was smiling. "Alison, can you take the cupcake up to your sister? Your dad and I have to go outside."

"Sure," Allison replied, swinging her legs over to the side of the bed and standing up, grimacing as her legs popped in protest. "Where are you going?"

Her dad wriggled his eyebrows. "Somewhere..." He said in a mock-mysterious voice, winking. "Your mother doesn't know."

Alison grinned knowingly and gave him the thumb up. Melissa rolled her eyes. "So you two are plotting something with each other now? Come on, Desmond, lets go. You forgot your jacket." She said. "Oh, and. Alison, the cake is in the kitchen, okay?"

"OK." Alison nodded. "Have fun."

"Bye, sweetheart." Her parents walked out the door. Alison waved goodbye then sighed to the empty room, walking over to the kitchen to get the treat. It was sitting on the kitchen table, a small and round cupcake, decorated with a smiley face in blue and yellow icing. Alison smiled as she looked at the piece of chocolate stuck in it.

She took the cupcake in her hands, careful not to smudge the icing. Then she walked quietly over to her sister's room.

She paused.

There were voices inside. They were hushed and faded and Alison wondered briefly if she should go in or not. Maybe Stephanie was busy. She was always busy, with either her school work or other mysterious things she didn't want to tell Alison about.

_Maybe it has something to do with magic,_ a small part of her mind thought hopefully. _Maybe the fantasy world of yours really does exist._

Then she shook her head._ It's just a cupcake_. She told herself. _I won't disrupt much, hopefully._

She opened the door slowly, wincing at the creaking noise, the sighed in both relief and disappointment as she scanned the empty room. Nothing magical, just Stephanie's neatly made bed and other ordinary objects. Alison didn't know what she had expected. A flying unicorn, maybe. Or maybe she had been imagining the voices. Maybe she hadn't disrupted anything, after all, and Stephanie wasn't in her room in the first place.

That was when she saw them.

Two identical people were frozen, standing at the corner of the room. Allison hadn't noticed them at first, because they were hidden with the shadows. The two people were both staring at Alison with their mouths wide open in surprise. Both had the familiar dark hair and dark eyes, except one was wearing a t-shirt and shorts and the other was dressed in all black from head to toe in some material Alison didn't recognise. The familiar bone structure and the familiar facial expression were on both of those faces, but there were two of them. Two identical faces. Two identical people.

Alison gaped. The cupcake in her hand slipped and dropped onto the floor, the icing smudging and staining the carpet, but she barely noticed as her eyes continued flickering between the two people rapidly.

"Um." The girl dressed in black said. Alison stared at her, her hand beginning to twitch. A nervous habit of hers, one that she had tried to stop but wasn't even bothering restraining now.

"I think she is in shock." The other girl said. Her voice sounded calm, like the Stephanie she knew sounded like, way calmer than Alison felt. Not that it was saying anything, because Alison didn't feel calm at all. She was torn between exitement that maybe magic did exist, and fear, that she was going insane.

Alison was still gaping. With difficulty, she made herself close her mouth. A small part of her was telling her that no one wanted to see the inners of another person's mouth, and she listened, although she was barely aware of it.

Black-clothed girl cleared her throat. Alison suddenly remembered to speak.

"...Stephanie?" she asked. Her voice was a pitch higher than usual as she continued on, very well aware of the fact that both her sisters were harboring the same expression.. "I think... I think there are two of you."

**xxx**

**Haha, sorry about the shortness of the chapter. I didn't write more because I wanted it to end here. So... yeah! What do you think?**

**Please review.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Alice-" The Stephanie dressed in black opened her mouth. Alison was still frozen, her hand clenching the door frame. Stephanie looked over at the other Stephanie, and Alison was left to stare once again at the identical features of her sisters.

"Calm down, Alice." The other Stephanie said. She looked over at Alison. "It's fine."

"It's fine?" The Stephanie in black said. "All my effort in keeping Alice away from magic is just... poof!"

"M-Magic?" Alison asked slowly. She didn't normally stutter, but this was one of the occasions where she was barely noticing her way of speaking. Her mind was focused on one thing. _Magic_. Well, that, and the fact that there are _two _Stephanies standing in front of her.

"You also have to calm down, Valkyrie." The calmer Stephanie said. "We could always take her to Geoffrey-"

"YOU ARE _NOT_ ERASING HER MEMORIES!" Stephanie roared, and Alison jumped slightly. She flinched at the murderous expression on her sister's face and took a step away.

"You are scaring your sister." One of the Stephanies said. "And I was just giving you all the possible suggestions and solutions to the mess right now."

"Can you stop being so calm all the time?" Stephanie groaned. "You're- you're just-"

"I don't have emotions." Stephanie said to the other Stephanie. "I can pretend to be panicked, if you want."

"Wait- you don't have emotions?" Alison asked Stephanie. The Stephanie that Alison wasn't talking to looked over at her.

"No, Alice. I mean, yes, she has- I mean, no, she doesn't not have-"

"I am her reflection." The other Stephanie interrupted. Stephanie punched her.

"You aren't supposed to say that!" She said. The other Stephanie rubbed her arm.

"Sorry." She said. "And stop punching me. I can feel."

"No, you can't. You're a reflection."

"I'm not supposed to be used this much, this way. My system is designed for simple imitations."

"Yes, but you're a reflection-"

"STOP!" Alison yelled. Her sisters stopped talking, and Alison glared at them. "Will you tell me what's going on? What reflection?"

"I am a reflection of Valkyrie." One of her sisters said. The other sister scowled and tried to interrupt, then stopped and frowned as she flattened her palm and started pressing at empty air. Alison looked at her strangely, but turned to the other Stephanie as she started speaking again.

"I do not have emotions, and my job is to pretend to be Valkyrie. Valkyrie is Stephanie, by the way."

"Valkyrie is... what? You're... who?" Alison asked slowly. "_What_?"

"I was supposed to tell her that." Alison's other sister said. She glared at the 'reflection', but it seemed half-hearted. The 'reflection' nodded.

"Sorry." It said. "I forgot."

"You should be sorry." Stephanie said, then paused. "Wait- I sense... a disturbance in the a-"

CRASH!

Alison shrieked. She jumped to the side and the doorway she was just leaning on exploded. Staring, she watched, wide eyed as a cloaked man entered the room.

He walked with a slight limp as he hobbled up to Alison. She stared down at her feet, unable to look at the man for some reason. Suddenly, she noticed her toe shrinking into a shrub. Screaming, she jumped and shook her leg, landing on her side. Tears blurred her vision, and she started sobbing uncontrollably.

Dimly, she was aware of Stephanie having the same reaction. She gasped, feeling salty tears on the edge of her lips, but she couldn't seem to stop crying. She was going to die. She was going to die, right here, in this room, and she was barely twelve. She was going to die a horrible and unheroic death, after just finding out that magic exists.

Suddenly, the window exploded. A shard of glass landed in Alison's palm and she scowled, her tears stopping for a split moment. Then the tears stopped completely. Alison got to her knees and stood up shakily, noticing that there was now one extra person in the room. He looked thin and knobby, and he was wearing a cloak with a large scarf. A huge, brimmed hat was pulled low over his face.

"Benton." He said to the cloaked man who had entered earlier. "You're under arrest."

His voice was velvety and smooth. Alison noticed Stephanie also getting to her knees and standing up.

"Skulduggery." She said. Alison stared at her. Skulduggery was an unusual name. "You came."

"Of course." said 'Skulduggery'. Then he turned to Benton.

"You're under arrest for assaulting, stealing, and the attempted assassination of my dear partner Valkyrie and her sister Alison. Not to mention her reflection."

It was then that Alison noticed the reflection. It was standing in the corner of the room, holding the phone, and it seemed fine. It didn't have the same reaction that Alison and Stephanie had.

"My powers didn't have any effect on that thing." Benton scowled as he jabbed a finger at the reflection. "It just didn't work."

"Of course." Skulduggery cocked his head to the side. "The reflection doesn't have emotions. It doesn't feel sadness or fear. But it had the sense to call me. Now, you're under arrest."

"Under arrest?" Benton laughed manically. "You have to catch me first."

Skulduggery nodded. Then he lashed out, sending a roundhouse kick to Benton's ribs. He grunted, doubling over, and Valkyrie clamped her hands down on his ears. Benton shrieked.

Then Alison was the one shrieking. She was crying again, tears dripping onto the carpet. Her throat was raw as she screamed at the top of her lungs, and Stephanie and Skulduggery glanced over, momentarily losing their concentration.

Benton laughed. He slid out of Skulduggery's grasp, jumping out of the broken window and disappearing from sight. Skulduggery cursed and ran to the glass, looking down, and Stephanie ran to Alison.

"Alison." She said. "Are you okay?"

Alison was trembling. She nodded slowly, standing up. "Stephanie...what was that? Who was him?"

"That was Benton Shrieketara." Skulduggery said from behind Alison, and she whirled around. "He specializes in illusions and making people scared and sad."

"Illusions? Making people scared or sad?" asked Alison. "What?"

The excitement of magic was coming back to her. A moment ago, she was too busy feeling sad to acknowledge what Stephanie was doing, or to think about the fireballs and sparks that flew around the room. Now it was all there, clear in Alison's memory, and she stumbled slightly and leaned against a wall.

"Woah." She mumbled. Stephanie stepped up to her.

"Alison, do you believe in magic?"

"Magic?" asked Alison. Magic. It was really magic. "Y-yes, I do believe so."

"It exists."

"Oh." Alison said. Stephanie was clearly expecting a different reaction as she repeated herself.

"I know you're in shock," She said, "But it exists. I know you need proof. Skulduggery, show yourself."

Alison took one look at Skulduggery and almost fainted.

* * *

"Yes..." Alison mumbled. "I am not here... I am dreaming... and there isn't a real, living skeleton standing right in front of me."

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, well aware that the whole entire room was silent, watching her. No, she thought. The silence was because the whole entire room wasn't here. It's all just a silly dream...

"Alison, I don't want to alarm you, but you're not exactly touching the ground."

"What?" Alison's eyes popped open. She looked down to find herself floating just above the carpet, her feet brushing against the furry surface.

"Oh," She said, feeling strangely calm. She felt... in her realm. Like she belonged. "I'm flying."

"No." corrected Stephanie. "You're floating. In the middle of my room."

"Right." Alison said. "Stephanie-"

"It's Valkyrie." The reflection interrupted. "Her name is Valkyrie."

"Yes, I can say that myself." Stephanie, or Valkyrie, scowled. "You see, when people know your given name, which is the name you're born with, they have a certain degree of control over you. The control is broken if you chose your magical name, which becomes your chosen name. That's why I go by the name 'Valkyrie', because I needed to break the control if I was to be associating with the magic world."

"Oh." Alison said. "Well, Ste-Valkyrie, so the reflection's been the one that I thought was you all this time?"

"Ah. Yes." Valkyrie looked guilty. "I had... stuff to do."

"Once you get dragged into the world of magic, you don't get to go out." Skulduggery supplied.

"Which is why," Valkyrie continued. "I need you to decide. Alison, do you want to be in the world of magic? It's dangerous. I almost die all the time. If you want out, I can erase all your memories of magic and it would be like this never happened."

"You can do that?"

"Yes." Valkyrie said. "So, Alison, what is it?"

Alison thought about how much at home she felt when flying. Actually, now that she thought about it, she was still floating in midair. She tried to get down, but failed.

"I would like to stay. I don't want my memories erased."

Valkyrie looked over at Skulduggery triumphantly. "Ha! I told you she would say yes!"

"You and your sister are abnormal. Most people don't want to live in a world where they constantly have a life threatening experience."

"I told you! I told-"

"Valkyrie!" Alison shrieked as she flew out of the broken window.

* * *

**Please Review.**


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